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Background:
Jesus has healed a man who was lame for 38 years.
This is a wonderful sign!
However, he did it Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.
To the Pharisees, a group of religious men who studied and wanted to follow the Word of God to a ‘T’, this was wrong.
They had defined this act as ‘working’ on the Sabbath.
So, instead of rejoicing in what Jesus had done for this man, and the sign Jesus performed in fulfilment of the prophecies concerning Him, they were persecuting Jesus.
Jesus responded by letting them know that God was at work, and so He—the Son of God—was also at work.
This infuriated the Pharisees even more!
They knew that Jesus was claiming to be equal with God.
Jesus responded with three “Truly, truly I say to you...” teachings.
John 5:19-23 - The Son does what the Father does; they are equally God
John 5:24 - whoever hears and believes HAS eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life
John 5:25-30 - The Son resurrects to life, now spiritually, and in the future physically
These three truths are crucial to us as believers.
We will never thrive in our Christian lives if we do not receive these teachings from Jesus.
We must know and believe that Jesus is fully God!
We must understand that we Have, right now, eternal life.
We have a relationship with God that we did not have when we were dead in sin.
We need to live in that relationship.
To many people live in doubt… When living in doubt of our new life, we are crippled and helpless to live in the joy and work we were called to do!
We must understand and live in the fact that Jesus has raised us out of the deadness of our sinful lives to live to righteousness!
Just as a man cannot live the same way he did before he was in a marriage relationship, so we should not live the same way before we were in a relationship with our God and Savior!
Jesus wants us to know these truths that can set us free to experience the resurrected life He has given us!
I encourage you to go back and review what we have been studying, and the homework from the past couple weeks.
Today, we are going to look at the rest of John 5—verses 31-47.
Let’s read it together.
How do we know it’s true?
As Jesus was teaching these men, they were apparently not receiving it.
They already had Jesus labelled as an law-breaker.
So when Jesus tries to teach them, I imagine they were asking the same question many people still ask today about Jesus— “How do we know it’s true?”
Jesus knows what is in men’s hearts, and He speaks directly to them.
That is why there is this transition from Jesus speaking about being the one to resurrect the dead, to talking about testimonies and truth.
Testimonies
The way we know what is true about most of what we know is by the testimony of others, whether they be our parents, teachers, friends, coworkers, etc.
In verses 31-39 the root word for testify or testimony is used 10 times!
That is what this portion is all about!
Jesus wants them to know that what He is teaching is true.
There is a witness to verify Him as the Son of God, equally God, the giver of Eternal life, the One who resurrects the dead!
Let’s see who it is...
What?
Jesus has just told us about Himself when He said He is the Son of God.
Is that not true?
Jesus’ testimony about Himself is true, but it would not be considered valid to these men because it was from Jesus, and not verified by two other witnesses.
Jesus’ testimony about Himself is not untrue, but rather ‘not valid’, which is another way the Greek word here can—and probably should—be translated here.
In fact, that is the way this word is translated in John 8:14.
On that occasion Jesus was telling them that His testimony about Himself is indeed valid, because He knows the truth about Himself.
However, here in John 5, Jesus realizes they would not consider His testimony about Himself valid, so He is going to go on and give other witnesses who will testify and be considered valid.
Who is this one who will testify to Jesus?
Testimony 1: John the Baptist
As we saw in John 1:19-28, the Pharisees had sent some of their members to John to ask John who He was, and John already testified to Jesus.
He said clearly,
John did testify and it was true.
But that was not the testimony Jesus was refering to when He said there was another who testified.
Jesus did not need the testimony of a man.
Not that John was, but men can lie.
In fact, that is what these religious leaders would eventually use to try to condemn Jesus.
Jesus has One greater than any man who will testify for Him, but He did mention John because these men had already sent to John, and in some way respected John and his ministry.
So, Jesus uses John’s testimony in hope that these men would remember John’s testimony and be saved.
Testimony 2: The works
These men did not want to believe Jesus.
Yet the very act that precipitated this interaction with Jesus was a witness to the truth of who Jesus is! Who else could make a man who was lame for 38 years walk by simply saying, ‘Get up!’?
Who else could heal a boy who was over 8 hours travel distance away by simply saying he was healed?
Who else could do all of the miracles that Jesus did, healing the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dead?
No one but God!
Who else could forgive sin and give eternal life, and then validate the truth of what He did by making the lame walk?
No one but God!
The things Jesus did were witnesses testifying to the truth that Jesus is God, the giver of eternal life, the One who frees from condemnation, the One who brings the dead to life!
And more than just the works, the Father Himself testified to Jesus!
Testimony 3: The Father
When did God testify to Jesus?
All through the Old Testament when He prophesied about Jesus coming!
He prophesied about Jesus coming and healing the lame, the deaf, the blind.
And, He also prophesied that the coming Messiah would be born as a man, but would be the Almighty God!
God did testify, and these men read and knew these prophecies.
They had the opportunity to hear God’s voice through the scriptures, but they would not hear.
They also had the opportunity to see the appearance of God (that is what that word form refers to, the outward appearance or form of something).
How?
Jesus became flesh to reveal the Father.
And Jesus says later in John...
If they had the opportunity to hear and see, why didn’t they?
With these witnesses giving solid testimony,
How could they search and not find?
This is the question we need to ask today.
God has given witness in the scriptures, and through the works of Jesus.
Yet many today, including people claiming to be Christians, seek and yet fail to find Eternal Life.
We do not want to be like them.
So let’s learn from these Pharisees mistakes.
What kept them from finding when they searched?
Nor does his word dwell in you… That was a charge that these men would have bucked against.
The Pharisees prided themselves in memorizing the Word of God.
As the Psalmist says in Psalm 119:11...
They hid the word in their hearts so they would not sin.
This is a good thing.
So why would Jesus say the word did not dwell in them?
Because though they knew the words, it did not penetrate their heart.
They had the form of religion, but denied its power.
And, though they knew the words, they did not believe the message...
Though they knew the prophecies, and so much of the scriptures, they did not receive the message, or the One it was about.
They did not find because: They did not believe
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